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Why is Xaro stupid?


faroresdragn

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I just want to say that I hated all of Daenerys' parts in this book (except maybe the part with the palace of dust, which was pretty cool). She spends it all in quarth just over and over saying "God no one really likes me, they only like me for my dragons, please give me ships, please give me ships, no i wont marry you" etc etc. So that aspect was boring, but the even more annoying thing was the fact that I dont understand how Xaro (or anyone really) could be so dumb. 

Xaro is constantly asking Dany to marry him, even though he's the character who is more explicitly pointed out to be gay than any other, and we find out that it is because in Quartheen tradition,  when two people get married they ask eachother for one thing, and if that thing is in that persons power to grant, they have to give it, no matter what it is. Xaro wants one of Danys dragons. at first hes trying to convince her he loves her because he assumes she doesnt know about the rule, but later he directly asks for one of her dragons in exchange for something, and she refuses that, and thats when hes done with her and tells her to get the hell out. 

Heres the thing though: why doesnt he just take the damn dragon? Hell, why doesnt he take all three? 1. Its not like were talking about Balerion the Dread here. These dragons are cat sized at best, can barely fly if at all, and cant even breathe fire yet. grab them and stuff them in a cage and theyre yours. 2. Daenerys is a little girl. yes, shes a queen, and a khaleesi, and the mother of dragons, but shes fourteen. If xaro wanted to take the dragon from her by force, what is she gonna do? yes, she has mormont, her 3 blood riders, and her khalaser, but that brings me to my third point: 3. Xaro is rich as hell. Not only do we see and hear about how vastly wealthy he is like a hundred times, but lets think of this logically. he is a member of the thirteen. Now, honestlyu, I dont think the book ever actually states that "the thirteen" actually consists of only thirteen people, but if it doesnt, its pretty safe to assume so. There are 3 main merchant groups in quarth, which is one of the richest trading ports in the world, and the thirteen are one. now assuming that the other two groups have much more than 13 people, and all three groups have around the same level of influence, that means the thirteen have to be the richest people in the city, and some of the richest people in the world, since all that money is consolidated into just thirteen people. 

Long story short, the dude has to have Bruce Wayne level resources to draw on. so these 100 people, only 4 of which are confirmed to be decent warriors, would be a laughable thing for him to get rid of. He wipes his ass with the amount of gold it would take to hire enough sellswords to massacre them all. 

So why does he resort to legal loopholes and trickery to try and bamboozle this little girl out of the one dragon, when he could take all 3 without even trying? it makes no sense. "oh crap she wouldnt give it to me peacefully. guess theres no way I can get it now." One half of the book is dedicated to Tyrions plots in Kings Landing, and how hes buying people left and right, and making people double agents with the power of his gold, and showing just about anyone can be bought. I dont know if Xaro has as much money as all of Casterly Rock, but he has enough. and hes in the thirteen, so hes supposed to be a shrewd businessman. Are you telling me he got all that wealth without ever leveraging it to get some treasures by force? or spill a little blood? because if a dragon is not enough to inspire him to resort to violence, then what could? 

The full stupidity of this hit me in her last chapter, when she goes out to the docks. At this point Xaro is already mad at her, and is telling her she needs to get away and leave his place. Dany mentions she left one of her blood riders to guard her dragons and her people. ONE. I mean shes probably done this multiple times. she never seems to take more than one dragon with her at a time, so shes constantly been leaving 2 dragons IN HIS HOUSE, guarded by one guy for months now. he has to be touched in the head not to steal them.

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The reason he doesn't just take them isn't because he can't do so; it's because the backlash would be impossible to handle. Not from Daenerys, but from the other Qartheen. If he simply takes the dragons, every person of note is going to want them. He took them by force from Danerys, other's will take them by force from him. And why not? He has no claim to them, other than that he took them. Others will try to make that same claim. Yes, he's one of the richest men in Qarth, one of the richest men in the known world. He also has the assistance of the other members of the Thirteen. None of which is helpful. If one of the other Thirteen wants a dragon, that's support lost. If the Tourmaline Brotherhood wants a dragon, that's a war he might not be able to win. Certainly not if the Thirteen don't stand with him, and most of them will probably try to take the dragons for themselves. Perhaps the other Thirteen would want to have a dragon, for the group, not just for Xaro. Civil war would likely descend upon Qarth. Xaro would probably die, along with the person who took the dragons from him, then that person, and so on. Or perhaps the armies that the Brotherhood and Xaro and the rest of the Thirteen raise to try to attain the dragons would butcher Qarth in their attempt. Perhaps Xaro would last long enough to see the dragons grow, perhaps not.

Or maybe that wouldn't happen. Maybe everyone would be okay with Xaro having the dragons. But, if he gets the dragon as a wedding gift, all of Qarth would have to accept it. This is a long held tradition. The dragon would be his, in the eyes of all of Qarth. Others may be jealous, but they'd have no cause to try to take it. By all Qartheen traditions and laws, the dragon is his. As you say, Xaro is very wealthy, very well protected. I doubt any one person would be able to muster a force strong enough to attack him and take his dragon, and it seems unlikely that anyone would be able to gain enough support to do so. Most would see the dragon as Xaro's, and would defend him, as they would if anyone made war with Xaro for anything else he owned.

So, option one, taking the dragons by force, leads to one of three outcomes: Xaro's death, a massive civil war that would likely destroy Qarth, or Xaro having dragons. Option two, getting a dragon as a wedding gift, leads to one outcome: Xaro having dragons. The only obstacle is getting Daenerys to agree. Of course, he couldn't.

Xaro cares about either himself or Qarth more than he cares about having a dragon. Other than that, the Qartheen are notoriously polite, and it simply wouldn't be proper for him to do so. I'm also not sure if the whole "guest right" thing exists over in Essos, but assuming it does, that's another reason.

So, there are a few reason's he might not have taken them, but I think trying to avoid war with the other Qartheen is the most probable.

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war with the other Quartheen?  I do remember that the quartheen are very polite. Something about how milk men was an appropriate name for them because they were weak or something like that. 

So the little girl has three dragons who will one day grow up to be terrible unstoppable death machines. But right now she has no army, no lands, virtually no followers, and her dragons are small and weak like she is. Shes basically an egg waiting to hatch into the most dangerous threat on earth, but they let her keep her dragons, when they could easily take them away, essentially because she has dibs on them. 

And the politeness and unwillingness to start a war kind of falls flat when you consider the fact that the thing he wants is a dragon. and Jorah even says he wanted the dragon "to rule quarth forever" or something like that. based on what dragons are good for, that implies he wants to use it to rule by force, seeing as he doesnt need more money, and dragons arent very good diplomats. So he obviously doesnt have a problem torching Quarth with dragonfire one day for power. I mean dragons arent good for anything but destruction as far as we know, so what else could he want it for? and if its obvious to Jorah (who is stragnely well versed in all world languages and cultures yet still an outsider), then his intentions would be blatantly clear to the other quartheen. And if it was obvious that he got the dragon to one day rule them with an iron fist, i doubt that something like obtaining it legitimately through a marriage tradition would stop them from taking his dragon while they can.

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I haven't thought about this before. I guess there is not much reason for Xaro not stealing one of the dragons, other than the possibility of a "guest right" custom in Qarth. I don't believe in the war hypothesis presented above, though.

I've only just started A Storm of Swords, so I don't know if we will have an explanation for this in the future, which I suppose it's quite likely, considering Martin's work.

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The dragons are small and comparatively helpless now. They will grow up, though, and turn dangerous.

That is why Xaro wants one. That may also be the reason that he doesn't steal one. He doesn't know how to control or tame dragons. Neither does Daenerys but that isn't exactly common knowledge. After all, she is a Targaryen, and that family was famous for riding dragons.

If Xaro received a dragon as a gift, Daenerys would certainly help him tame the animal. If he steals a dragon, such help would not be forthcoming. He decided not to try it - especially as Daenerys leaving the dragons practically unguarded in his house signals her confidence that even small dragons are capable of defending themselves.

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